1 John chapter five, and I wanna
read the last four verses. 1 John chapter five, verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not. but he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God,
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that
the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that
we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. This is the last part of my overview
of 1 John. And You gotta love how this book
ends, this epistle ends. Because John starts off in chapter
two and verse three, we know that we know him. And he ends
in first John five with what we know, no, I'm sorry, who we
know. We know him. And the beauty of
it is that we get to know that we know him. The blessing of knowing God is
passed over a lot. But it is one of the greatest
blessings that God can give to a man. Because the world doesn't
know him at all. Not even the least little bit.
Not truly. Some may think they have a glimpse,
some may do great studies in the scripture. Some have made up all kinds of
stuff. But there is no way for a natural
man to know God outside of the spirit of God. It's not possible. We'll get into that a little
bit here. The first verse I want to speak of here is, of course,
verse 18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but
he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one
toucheth him not. Now I know some people will look
at that and say, oh well, you have to keep yourself. You've
got to keep yourself. Otherwise, you're not saved.
That's not what John said. John wrote, we know that whosoever
is born of God sinneth not, but he is begotten of God does keep
himself. I did not speak on this verse,
but I saved it for this particular place because it doesn't say
anything about we know as far as using those words. But if
you would, back up to 1 John chapter three and verse nine. Because, well, before that, we
did read in 1 John 1. But if we walk in the light as
he is in the light, and have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all
sin. That's verse seven, verse eight.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. If we say
we don't have a sin nature, you're deceiving yourself. If you really
think that, If you really think that there is no darkness inside
of you, you're fooling yourself. That's what John wrote and that's
what John meant. And that goes for believers and
non-believers alike. Verse eight, if we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Verse
nine, if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In
verse 10, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar. It's one thing to think you don't
have a sin nature. It's another thing to say that
you don't sin at all. One, you're deceiving yourself,
and on the second part, you're calling God a liar because God
said, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And
I'll believe him long before I'll believe any man. We make
him a liar and his word is not in us. But 1 John 3 and verse
nine, he states this. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. for his seed, God's seed, the
Holy Spirit, remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he
is really, really good. Now, no. He cannot sin because he keeps
himself tightly under wraps and he mortifies all his members.
No, it says he cannot sin because he is born of God. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God, born of God,
keepeth himself and that the wicked one toucheth him not. You don't boast on yourself,
you're boasting on God. In God's sight, you have no sin.
His son paid for every single one. His son took care of that
sinful nature. It's still here. But he gave us a new nature. The Holy Spirit of God remains
in us. And the wicked one doesn't touch
us because we are in God's hands. We are in Christ Jesus and no
one plucks us out of the Father's hand. Now, verse 19. And we know that we are of God
and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Now here's two things
we know. John's very clear, two things
we know. If you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, that's how he started the fifth chapter here, you're
born of God. We know that we are of God and
the whole world lies, present tense, in wickedness. Two things we know. We're of
God and the world is not. Whatever John's talking about
here. And this is the difference that
Jesus Christ makes in his people. Only those who know God, only
those who know Christ, only those who believe that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God. And the whole world lays in wickedness. And it says the whole world.
And it lays there. You know why? It's happy to do
so. See, this is the other thing
that the world doesn't know. The world doesn't know that it's
wicked because the world doesn't understand what wickedness is. The root, the seat of wickedness
is to deny that Jesus is the Christ. Even if they use his
name, but they don't use his character. Even if they praise
the name of Jesus, but to do so without knowing who Jesus
is, or explicitly denying who Jesus of Nazareth is. They're laying in wickedness.
That's where it is. That's the spirit of antichrist.
That's the spirit. And this whole world is comfortable,
happy with, it loves itself, and it hates Jesus Christ. The
world, and I do mean in this case religious and secular, it
doesn't matter, the whole world hates God. They'll deny it. the religious
will anyway, because they love their own God. But to hate the
God of the Bible, to hate the true Christ who is seated at
the right hand of the Father, expecting his enemies to be made
his footstool and in charge of everything upon this earth. They do hate the true and living
God of sovereign grace. And this is the essential character
of the world without Jesus Christ. Toward this Christ, this Christ,
the one who chose us from the beginning, the one who came and
died for our sins, for the sins of his people. Toward him, this
world is hurtful, ruinous, mean, wicked, hateful, vicious, and
you could name some more adjectives if you want to. And you may say,
wait, the world doesn't treat me like that. Maybe, maybe not. But that's how they treat the
true God. What did Christ tell us? Don't
cast your pearls before swine. And then he gave us a reason
why. Because they'll trample it underfoot. And he was talking
about the truth of himself. I can't give somebody Christ
and they trample him underfoot. But I could speak of Christ,
his work, what he's done for me. And you put that out to some
people, they'll trample it underfoot. And then it says, they'll turn
and they'll rend you. They'll rend you if they can get away with it. If the world knows that you stand
in him and if the world knows you stand with him, they'll treat
you like he treated him. In hatred and in malice. I've seen it. I've experienced
it. The world lies in wickedness. And just to be very clear about
it, I remember Henry saying this 30
some years ago. Earl repeated it, and I'll repeat
it now. Walter said it. Other preachers
have said it. Satan does some of his biggest
work, his best work in churches. And you can have a Mormon on
one side and a Baptist on the other and they'll gang up together
to come against this Christ and against you if you preach the
God of sovereign grace. That's how much they hate this
Christ. You can get a union between Baptists and Catholics against
Christ. Oh, Herod, Pontius Pilate, the
Jews and the Gentiles. You know what that was? About
everybody. All the best people in the world
are against Christ as the world sees the best people. You know, our Lord was on the
cross. As far as we know, he didn't
save anybody except for a thief that was hanging beside him. The Pharisees said, he hangs
out with publicans and sinners. And he eats with them, fellowships
with them. And you know what you're supposed
to say about that? Thank God, thank God. Jesus Christ came
to save sinners. And the world doesn't want to
be considered sinners, religious or secular. I talked about it last week,
I read verse what, 316, John 316, 17, 18. I didn't read John
3, 19, because I was saving it for this. Because it talks about
those that believe Christ and those who don't believe Christ
are condemned already. John chapter three and verse
19 says this, and this is the condemnation, that light has
come into the world. And men loved, loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. What's that
mean? That means the whole world lies
in wickedness. It lays there. I had a guy I
used to work with told me one time, he says, I'm not afraid
of work. I can lay down right next to it and go to sleep. That's
what the world's doing. They're laying right next to
wickedness and they don't care. They don't care. The world is
antichrist. Many antichrists are out in the
world. John wrote that 2,000 years ago. I don't think there's
any less now. I think there's probably more. It lays in wickedness. Verse 20, John doesn't leave
us there though. And we know that the Son of God
is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know
him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. The only reason We understand
anything of the things of God is because he's given us an understanding. I didn't understand any of this
before. Now to be perfectly honest about it, I had no desire to
know anything about this. But even when some people would
tell me a little bit about it, I didn't care, Walter. I didn't. I was a secular person, I was
not a religious person. I will tell you that I was a
good Catholic, but that's got nothing to do with religion.
I went to church and did what I was supposed to do, and then
I went out and did what I wanted to do. But as long as you go to church
once a Sunday, you know, you's okay. At least I was told I was
okay. I didn't know at that time, I
was lying in wickedness. That's where I was. And I was
very happy to be there at the time because I didn't know anything
different. But now we know, who's that? Those that are born of God. We
know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. No natural man can know the things
of the Spirit of God. No natural man can know the things
of God. First Corinthians chapter two,
verse 10. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his spirit, for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things
of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so. Man knows the things of man.
Even so, even so, just like that, the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God. Now, we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God,
by God. which things also we speak. Not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but with the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. This is why the whole world lies
in wickedness. The natural man cannot know the
things of the spirit of God. All they know is the things of
a man. And even more than that, all
they know is the things of a fallen man, which ain't nothing but wickedness.
Yes, some people are better than others. Yes, some people live
nice moral lives. But that doesn't mean they don't
lie in wickedness. Because if you deny Christ, you're
in wickedness. That's the definition of wickedness,
is to deny God. God says, I am true, and every
man's a liar. That's what we are. That's what
we are. And the natural man cannot. He can't know them. Because they're spiritually discerned.
But we know the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. How can a man know that he knows
God? The only way you can is that
Christ give you an understanding through his Holy Spirit, which
he gives us. That's the question. Why do I
care about Jesus Christ? Why do I care about God the Father?
Why do I care about the Holy Spirit? Have you ever asked yourself
that question? He gives it to you to care. He gives it to you to care. And
if He gives it to you to care about these things, He's gonna
give you an understanding of His things. The work of His Son,
the work of the Spirit, and the work of the Father. We know the
Son of God has come. I believe that more than I believe
anything else in this world. Well how can you, I don't know,
but I do. You understand, I have all kind
of doubts about myself at times. But I got no doubts about this
one. Not about the Son of God. I might not be in Him, but He
is Him. And this book is clear about
who He is. He gives us His Spirit. The Holy Spirit. What do you
tell Him? He says, He's with you. and he
shall be in you. That's what he told his disciples. And he's given us an understanding
about two things we understand. One, that we know him who is
true. To know the things of the spirit
of God, you have to be given the spirit of God. to know the Son of God, to actually
confess that Jesus is the Christ, you gotta know that Jesus is
the Christ. We've been given to know. We have, if we're born of God, we believe his gospel. his word preached, his word proclaimed,
his word written, and his word spoken. He's promised it, and he sent
his gospel. And he sent his gospel to his
people. He's promised. If you believe
not that I am he, you're gonna die in your sins. And then Paul
writes later, how can they believe on him whom they don't know? And how can they know if they
don't hear? And how can they hear unless somebody preaches? We know the things that are freely
given to us by God. And knowing Jesus Christ is a
thing of the spirit of God. Knowing Jesus Christ is a gift
of God. It's from God, it's by God, and
it's through his Holy Spirit. And he has given us an understanding
that we know him as true and that we are in him that is true. Understanding is given to know
that we are in him. You understand, John's writing
this whole epistle to believers, to believers. If you confess, if you believe
that Jesus is the Christ, you are born of God. And what's it
mean to be born of God? It means that you are right now
in him, in Jesus Christ. We were chosen in Jesus Christ
before the foundation of the world, but then comes the time
where he, the son, brings in many sons to glory. And if you
believe that Jesus is the Christ, you are in him because you are
born of God. In him. is everything good. And without him is absolutely
nothing. In him is life, without him is
only death. We know him who is true, and
we know we are in him who is true. And how do we know this?
Only because he hath given us an understanding. We can't even
boast in our knowledge. We can't boast in anything. Matter
of fact, we're told not to boast in anything. Why? Because what
have you got that you haven't received? And that goes as much
for salvation, it goes as much for knowledge. It goes as much
knowing the truth of God, that he's revealed unto you, it's
because he's revealed it unto you. We can't boast in anything. And who is it that we're to boast
in? Who is it that we're in? Who is the one who is true? John,
just in case you weren't sure, his son, Jesus Christ. Who is
true? Jesus Christ, God manifests in
the flesh. There's no one else. There's
none under name anywhere. by which ye must be saved. And every knee's gonna bow and
every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus, Jesus is Lord above
all. His son, Jesus Christ. God has
put everything in the hands of his son. Everything. He's committed all
judgment under the sun. He's committed all salvation
under the Son. There's no salvation without
Him, there's no judgment without Him. There's nothing outside
of Christ in that manner. We know Him and we know we are
in Him. We know Jesus is the Christ and
this is what it actually means to be born of God. You confess
that Jesus is the Christ. You believe that Jesus is the
Christ. You know the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit. The triune God, the Trinity. We don't know everything about
him, and we never will, I don't think. What we're gonna know
when we have a glorified body, I've got no idea. I hope I'm
not as dumb as I am now. But this is the thing. We know
him now. We believe him now. And that's the key thing. See,
I understand and I've been in churches, we've been in places
where I made my profession 35 years ago and I trusted God.
Well, that's all well and fine. Question is, do you believe him
now? Because if you don't believe him today, you didn't believe
him yesterday. And that's the God honest truth
about it. That's as plain as I can make it. If you don't believe
Jesus is the Christ now, you never have. Because there is
no such thing as being saved one day and lost the next. Or
even 20 years down the road. Because his salvation, as promised,
as purposed, as told us in his word, his salvation is as eternal
as he is. This, what, is the true God and
eternal life. Eternal life. Got no end. There is no end. And eternal
life is here right now if you believe, truly believe, that
Jesus is the Christ, you have eternal life. For those who believe, eternal
life is here. And eternal life is to know God. And Jesus Christ, whom the Father
sent. Christ said it in John 17. Now eternal life for us starts
when we're born of God. But eternal life started long
before that, you know? And we can go back to the first
gospel preaching in Genesis, when God preached the gospel
to Adam and Eve. But eternal life started long
before that. Eternal life started when God
said, and God chose his people in his son. But for us, on this planet, as
we live here, it begins with this. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Up until then, you don't know
anything. After that, you have been given
an unction. You've been given an understanding. He said, you've been given an
unction, you know all things. Now you don't know everything,
but you know all things. How do you know all things? You
know Jesus Christ. If you know Jesus Christ, you
know all things. Before that, before being born
again, we were just like the natural man. We could not, cannot,
did not understand the things of God. But it is given to believers
to understand and to know God. What did Jesus Christ say? He
that lives and believes in me shall never die. We have this eternal life in
the word of life, Jesus Christ. And then this last verse. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. Now this epistle is written to those
that believe and only those that believe know Jesus Christ. Only those said not. because
his spirit remains in him. Only those who believe can say
truthfully they are born of God. Because only those are not of
the world, they may be in the world, but they're not of the
world. How do you keep yourselves from
idols? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the promised one, the holy one of Israel, and we believe him. Because if you believe Jesus
Christ, truly, you don't need an idol. There's no need for an idol.
Because he's everything. John starts and ends this epistle
with our knowing And with the fact that all of our knowledge
of him comes from him. Comes from God. We know him because
God has given it to us to understand him. Somewhat. We know him because
he first knew us. Just like we love him because
he first loved us. And Jesus Christ has revealed
himself to those that he brings in. Every one of his sheep. It's not of the fold. He's gonna
bring in to that fold. And there's one fold and there's
one shepherd and that's all there is, that's all there ever has
been. We believe that Jesus is the
Christ because he has given us his spirit He has given us an understanding. The world, Jesus Christ is the
creator of all things. He's the sustainer of all things. By him, all things consist. He is the Lord over all. Without him is nothing and in
him is everything. Because he is the alpha and the
omega, the beginning and the end. And he's everything in between. The world doesn't contain God. The universe doesn't contain
God. God contains the universe. It's in him. Everything is in him. And believers
are in his son because God has put them there. Jesus said, my sheep know my
voice. and a stranger they won't follow. So the question is, are you following
Christ? Like I said, do you believe Christ
today? We'll leave tomorrow till tomorrow.
But today, today's the question. Am I following Christ? Well, I wrote some things down
here. Just to ask yourselves, I've
asked them to me and I still do. But here's the first one. Do you want to hear Jesus Christ
preached? Do you want to hear others just
speak about him, talk about him? Here's one. Do you want to say
something about him? Even if maybe you can't find
the words. Do you love to hear him praised?
Do you want to praise him? Again, even if you can't find
the words. Do you want to know more about
this Jesus in these scriptures? This Jesus who is the Christ? Now if the answer is yes, That's
a good indication you have some idea who this Jesus Christ is.
Because, here's the thing, John wrote it. We keep his commandments
and, and, this goes with keeping his commandments, his commandments
are not grievous. It's not a burden to know Christ. That's not the burden. The burden's
living in this world when you know Christ. His yoke is easy,
his burden is light. But his commandments are not
grievous to his brethren. Take heart and cling to him.
Believe him, love him, learn of him. And love him and
his brethren. Let's quit with this. First John
four, verse four. Ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, overcome them, because greater is he that
is in you than he that is in the world. That's a comfort to those who
are of God. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord,
for this time and this place. We thank you for all of your
blessings through your son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. We ask that you be with Walter
as he comes to preach your word. Make it enlightening to our ears,
lighten our hearts, and help us to believe you more and every
day. In Christ's name we pray, amen.